PBS高端访谈:华裔创业天才离世

JUDY WOODRUFF: The retired¹ CEO of the online shoe store Zappos, Tony Hsieh, died on Friday from injuries suffered in a fire. Throughout the tech industry, he had been seen as a visionary who revolutionized online commerce. He was 46. Last year, Steve Goldbloom from our That Moment When team spoke² to Hsieh about his career and the importance of shared values at his company.

朱迪·伍德乐夫：Zappos的退休首席执行官托尼·谢家华于周五因在火灾中受伤严重而逝世。他彻底改变了电子商务，在整个科技行业一直被视为有远见卓识之人。他享年46岁。去年，他和我们“那一刻”团队的史蒂夫·戈德布卢姆讲述了自己的职业生涯以及共同价值观在他的公司的重要性。

TONY HSIEH, Former CEO, Zappos: After graduating from college in '95, I went to work for Oracle³ in the Bay Area. My college roommate, we decided⁴ to start our own business. And at the time, the Internet was just getting started. We started a Web design and marketing⁵ business. During lunch hours, I would go and make sales calls. In the evenings at home, we would create Web sites. And then we realized that all these Web sites we were creating, they didn't really have a way market themselves. And so that's what led us to start a service called LinkExchange. We started hiring friends. And that whole strategy of hiring friends and friends of friends worked really well until we got to about 20 people. And then we basically ran out of friends. We had to start hiring people through resumes and interviewing. And we also didn't know any better to pay attention to company culture. And not everyone we hired was good for the culture. And not everyone so by the time we got to 100 people, I dreaded⁶ getting out of bed in the morning to go to my own company. And that's really what led us to sell the company to Microsoft. We sold LinkExchange in 1998 for $265 million. I started making a list of all the things that I wanted to buy, and I realized that I didn't actually have that much on the list. I was really more interested in helping⁷ build stuff. When I got involved with Zappos, wanted to make sure that I didn't make the same mistake again, and so that's why, from the beginning, Zappos has always paid a lot attention to company culture. Zappos was founded in 1999 in San Francisco. In 2004, we ended up moving the entire company to Las Vegas. We decided we wanted to build the Zappos brand to be about the very best customer service and customer experience. So, we literally⁸ take thousands and thousands of phone calls every day. We view it as, actually, our best relationship-building opportunity. Everyone's being inundated⁹ with thousands of marketing messages every day. When you have a phone call with someone, you actually get to connect with them one on one. One of our core values at Zappos is to create fun and a little weirdness¹⁰. We really recognize and celebrate each person's individuality, and we want their true personalities¹¹ to shine in the workplace. Most people, they are a different person at home, on weekends hanging out with their friends than they are in the office with co-workers. Ideally, you're the same person. Your co-workers aren't just co-workers, but they're are actual friends, not because we're forcing you to be friends, but because that's what you want because you have the same values, because you want to make sure that the values still include enough room for diversity. I'm, by default, pretty introverted and quiet and shy. If I meet someone for the first time, I have gotten feedback that, sometimes, because I'm not talking as much, they think I secretly hate them or I'm judging them or whatever, whereas I'm just shy, I guess.

托尼·谢家华，前CEO，Zappos：95年大学毕业后，我去了旧金山湾区的甲骨文公司工作。我的大学室友，我们决定自己创业。那时互联网才刚刚起步。我们开始了网页设计和营销业务。午餐时间我会去做电话销售。在家里的晚上我们会创建网站。然后我们意识到，我们创建的所有这些网站，它们并没有真正的营销渠道，这就是我们启动一项名为LinkExchange服务的原因。我们开始雇佣朋友，这种雇佣朋友和朋友的朋友的策略非常有效，直到我们雇佣了20人。之后我们没什么朋友可雇佣了，我们不得不开始通过简历和面试来进行招聘。我们对于关注企业文化也没有什么意识，也不是所有我们雇佣的人都适合我们的企业文化，直到我们的员工达到100人的时候，我开始害怕早上起床去自己的公司，这也是我们把公司卖给微软的原因。1998年，我们以2.65亿美元的价格出售了LinkExchange。我开始列一张我想买的东西的清单，然后我发现清单上的东西并不多。我对帮忙制作东西更感兴趣。在我加入Zappos的时候，我想确保自己不会再犯同样的错误，这就是为什么Zappos从一开始就非常关注公司文化。Zappos于1999年在旧金山成立。2004年，我们最终把整个公司搬到了拉斯维加斯。我们决定把Zappos的品牌塑造成最好的客户服务和客户体验，所以我们每天都要接成千上万个电话。实际上我们把这个看作是建立关系的最佳机会。每个人每天都被成千上万的营销信息淹没。当你和某人通电话的时候，你可以和他们进行一对一的沟通。我们Zappos的核心价值观之一就是创造乐趣并制造一点点古怪。我们真的认可并赞美每个人的个性，我们希望他们的真实个性能够在工作中闪耀。大多人在家里或者周末和朋友一起出去玩的时候的样子和在单位和同事在一起的样子是不同的。能做到是同一个人是理想状态。你的同事不仅仅是同事，而是真正的朋友，不是因为我们强迫你们成为朋友，而是因为那是你们想要的，因为你们有相同的价值观，因为你想确保价值观中仍保留了足够的多样性。通常情况下我比较内向、安静、害羞，这就是大家对我的第一印象。因为有的时候我不爱说话，他们就觉得我讨厌他们、对他们有意见什么的，然而我想我其实就是害羞。

JUDY WOODRUFF: Inspiring story from Tony Hsieh, who died on Friday.

朱迪·伍德乐夫：托尼·谢家华于周五去世，这是他的鼓舞人心的故事。

1 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 oracle   

n.神谕，神谕处，预言

参考例句：

• In times of difficulty,she pray for an oracle to guide her.在困难的时候，她祈祷神谕来指引她。
• It is a kind of oracle that often foretells things most important.它是一种内生性神谕，常常能预言最重要的事情。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

6 dreaded   

adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The dreaded moment had finally arrived. 可怕的时刻终于来到了。
• He dreaded having to spend Christmas in hospital. 他害怕非得在医院过圣诞节不可。 来自《用法词典》

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 inundated   

v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• We have been inundated with offers of help. 主动援助多得使我们应接不暇。
• We have been inundated with every bit of information imaginable. 凡是想得到的各种各样的信息潮水般地向我们涌来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 weirdness   

n.古怪，离奇，不可思议

参考例句：

• The weirdness of the city by night held her attention. 夜间城市的古怪景象吸引了她的注意力。
• But that's not the end of the weirdness feasible in evolutionary systems. 然而这还不是进化系统居然可行的最怪异的地方呐。

11 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。